cannabisnews.com: Puna Hemp Advocate Seeks To Have Mayor Impeached!
Puna Hemp Advocate Seeks To Have Mayor Impeached!
Posted by FoM on June 18, 1999 at 13:14:23 PT
Source: Map Inc.
Hilo, Hawai'i - A group favoring the legal use and cultivation of marijuana is seeking the impeachment of Mayor Steve Yamashiro and six members of the Hawaii County Council.
The County Charter requires only 100 signatures of registered voters to seek an impeachment action in Circuit Court. Roger Christie, leader of the impeachment effort, said this week that he has obtained the required signatures. Christie, who opened The Hemp Island Outpost while celebrating his 50th birthday Tuesday, accused the Big Island council of malfeasance because it has not actively pursued a policy review of the controversial Green Harvest marijuana raids by federal, state and county law enforcement officers. The council last year approved such a review by the legislative auditor's office after the state auditor declined to conduct one. Mayor Yamashiro, who is attending a national conference, was not available for comment yesterday. The council is not in session this week. Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd of Hilo, an attorney, said the petition does not bother her. "I don't believe they have met the threshold issues to even seek impeachment," she said. Leithead-Todd said her constituants support the police campaign against marijuana. "Most of them thank me for supporting the police," she said. Christie's petition also cites "wrongful prosecution," referring to a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against Hawaii County earlier this month. The three-judge panel reinstated Puna resident Aaron Anderson's civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu. The county's attorney's plan to take the appealate ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Anderson and Christie were charged with felony promotion of marijuana for importing 25 pounds of sterile hemp seeds from China in 1991. The charges against Christie were dismissed; Anderson's trial ended in a hung jury before the charges were also dismissed. Judge Susan Gerber found that former deputy prosecutor Kay Iopa had "presented false evidence that plaintiffs' seeds had germinated when tested."
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